YOU CAN’T LODGE HERE, MR. FERGUSON, phr. (streets’).—A street cry, popular about 1845–50; used in derision or denial. [Mr. J. H. Dixon, writing to Mr. John Camden Hotten, under date Nov. 6, 1864, says the phrase originated thus:—A young Scotsman, named Ferguson, visited Epsom races, where he got very drunk. His friends applied to several hotel keepers to give him a bed, but in vain. There was no place for Mr. Ferguson. He was accordingly driven to London by his companions, who kept calling out, FERGUSON, YOU CAN’T LODGE HERE. This was caught up by the crowd, repeated, and in a week was all over London, and in a month all over the kingdom. Mr. Dixon states he was introduced to Mr. Ferguson, and that two of his companions were intimate friends.]—See STREET CRIES.

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  1855.  Morn. Chron., 28 Oct., 4/3. I tried a location in the Sardinian quarters, but one of their fierce little Bersaglieri told me, in very excited Italian, something, which, judging from his antics and gestures, I had no difficulty in understanding what he meant, being interpreted--‘You can’t lodge here, Mr. Ferguson.’

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